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Censorship U?

[UPDATED 2/4/12]: Great news. Last night, thanks to the rapid response of Free Press activists, Arizona State University lifted its blocking of student access to Change.org.

We hope ASU understands that it must put the free speech rights of its students first. Free Press has asked the university to scrutinize its Internet-use policies to ensure they don’t compromise these online freedoms.

This is a win in the ongoing fight to protect the open Internet. But Internet censorship like we saw at ASU is on the rise at home and around the globe. Free Press will be fighting it at every turn.

Arizona State University might need to change its name to Censorship U after deciding to block students’ access to popular petition site Change.org.

Change.org happens to be hosting a petition created by ASU student Eric Haywood that protests rising tuition costs at the school.

This blocking could be violating the First Amendment rights of ASU students to speak freely and petition government.

When challenged about the website blocking, ASU officials claimed that Change.org is a spam site, writing that the blocking was conducted “to protect the use of our limited and valuable network resources for legitimate academic, research and administrative uses.”

But Change.org is anything but spam. It’s a perfectly lawful website that has helped millions take action on a host of important issues (disclaimer: I worked there as managing editor from 2008–2009).

The fact is, disabling access to any lawful site violates the spirit and principles of Net Neutrality, chills academic freedom and possibly rises to the level of a First Amendment violation. It’s astonishing that ASU President Michael M. Crow would allow this to happen — and that’s why Free Press and Change.org are urging him to stop his school’s censorship immediately.

We’re at a moment when threats to online speech are peeking around every corner. Just last month, we beat back SOPA and PIPA, two bills in Congress that would have opened the door to online censorship from big corporations.

Freepress.net is a project of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund. Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund do not support or oppose any candidate for public office. We are nonpartisan organizations fighting to save the free and open Internet, curb runaway media consolidation, protect press freedom, and ensure diverse voices are represented in our media.